Painting Challenge Submission 16 - More 10mm FPW Infantry

More 10mm troops for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Figures from Pendraken.

Hi everyone. The final stages of the 11th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge are here, and I have a few more submissions to share before that wraps up. To the surprise of nobody, I had another submission with even more 10mm subjects for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. These are all metal castings from Pendraken. There are three bases of French line infantry, one base of Prussian line infantry and another command base for the French.

Deadly Chassepot rifles at the ready.

Firing lines will be the friend of any French player in the FPW period.

I've raved previously about how cool the French line infantry uniforms are from this period (and they are SO cool) so that makes painting these little regiments a lot of fun. The three bases together will represent an infantry unit. My planning is such that each base would generally represent a battalion, and thus the three bases together would represent a regiment, but there are a lot of different rules that give you different options on perspective - this could just as easily represent a brigade, or each base could represent a company etc. whatever. I really like rules that are agnostic about that kind of thing.

Senior command base for the French.

Actual senior commanders would have had smaller flags...but screw it.

He's thinking "how can I snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?"

The command base is meant to represent a more senior level of officer group - like many of you, the more figures on the base, the more senior the command. Here we have a mounted senior officer, with some flunkies, and a flag, so this would be something like a corps commander.

Prussian line infantry, ready to advance!

The Pendraken sculpts are just fantastic.

So far, so French. In AHPC XI my 10mm work has been on French troops - so why only this one single base of Prussians in this submission? Well, I had finished a bunch of Prussians and Bavarians already over the past couple years, and it made sense to focus on building up the French in this edition of the Challenge. With that said, I was doing a review of the little soldiers on my shelf (as one does), and I noticed that, for whatever reason, my Prussians were still a single base short of having an entire Corps' worth of Prussian line infantry (on the basis that one base = one battalion). This irked me (as these sorts of things do), and so painted these guys up to round things out.

One more look at the French lingards...

Of course, no project is ever actually "finished", these figures do represent something of a waypoint for my 10mm FPW efforts - I have enough stuff painted to stage the Battle of Wissembourg as described in Bruce Weigle's awesome "1870" rule set - I even have enough French finished to play the alternative versions of the scenario he offers! That works out to 65 bases of infantry, 20 bases of cavalry, 28 bases of artillery, and 18 different command bases. I'm not about to stop at this project - after all, more and bigger battles await! But this a nice point to pause and smile a little. Now I just need to get them on to the table...

Hope all is well out there with everyone! Stay safe and stay sane.

Painting Challenge Submission 14 - 10mm French Infantry and Command for FPW

10mm French troops, ready for battle in 1870!

Another submission to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - we have more 10mm figures for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Here is a unit of French line infantry, and some command bases with mounted figures. These are all 10mm figures from Pendraken.

Typical of my project so far - three bases to form an infantry unit.

The uniform of the French Infantry from the era of the second empire is just so fun to paint, a real "clincher" for my interest in the period and wish to game it. All the regiments with baggy red pants and kepis and epaulettes...just so cool. It is not a circumstance where you paint many units with "OK" uniforms to get to the cool ones...this is the uniform of the basic lignard, and it is already awesome (meaning the elite units are thus even more awesome). It is a lot of fun to paint.

So much lovely detail on these castings from Pendraken.

And it shows up so nicely, even in 10mm (although of course I am biased), because the sculpts from Pendraken are top-shelf, cunningly crafted and well-cast so there are details to work with, even at a relatively small scale.

Column formation to move forward...hope no Prussian artillery is nearby!

The infantry here would represent a Regiment for rules such as "Black Powder" and "1871", but of course such rules can scale up or down as you like, depending on the nature of the battle and scenario one wishes to play.  

Mounted officers - I initially intend to use them as brigade commanders, but these can be used for all sorts of purposes.

The command bases are similar - the bases with a single mounted officer are meant to represent brigade commanders for "1871", which the base with the two mounted figures would be a division commander. I placed a Cuirassier on the base as I intended this specific one for command of a French cavalry division - but again many different rules allow for many different command bases in different ways - for my part, the more figures on the base, the more senior the commanders.

Two figures on the command base, to represent a more senior level of command - a cavalry officer, with the Cuirassier to keep an eye on things...

The end of the Challenge is looming, and I find I'm still well-short of my goal. Hopefully I can still find time to get more done before the end of the Challenge in March. Stay safe everyone, and happy painting!

Painting Challenge Submission 13 - 10mm French Cuirassiers for FPW

10mm French Cuirassiers for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Figures from Pendraken.

Hello again blog visitors! I continue to play blog-posting-catch-up with my submissions to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. For this submission, we return once more to a familiar setting for my brushes: the tabletop battlefields of 19th century Europe. Here are some 10mm French Cuirassiers from the Franco-Prussian War. These are metal figures from Pendraken. 

As always, the castings from Pendraken are amazing.

With their beautiful uniforms and bright, polished/burnished helmets and breastplates, the French Cuirassiers are an iconic military symbol, of both France's military prestige and the idea of heavy cavalry from the so-called "black powder" era of war. Through the Napoleonic wars, these well-trained, hard-hitting heavy cavalry were called on to make a decisive impact in a number of battles - and they did so, many times cracking the enemy when the Emperor called them forward.

Reverse-pattern uniform on the trumpeter in the foreground...I just noticed that I forgot to paint the stripes on their pants...oh well, they are only 10mm...

In the time of the Second Empire, the Cuirassiers strove very much to maintain this tie to earlier times, and the French army retained several regiments of these bad-boys, ready to deliver a knock-out blow on the battlefield. But as many accounts will share, technology and doctrine were evolving. Many sorts of cavalry found they could not overcome the massed fire of bolt-action rifles and artillery, and the Franco-Prussian War saw mostly empty saddles when cavalry went into the main battle. This was an issue for the cavalry on both sides, but the losses suffered by these glorious French cavalry troopers seem somehow more dramatic to me, especially as they often occurred in the context of a broader defeats underscored by the incapability of a French general staff to truly grasp WTF was going on while the Prussian forces enveloped them. The shattered regiments of Cuirassiers were a fitting symbol for fate of Napoleon III and his Second Empire.

Glory awaits on the tabletop...

Whatever the lessons of history, on a wargaming table, launching heavy cavalry is always fun, and I was looking forward to painting these figures. I just love the uniforms of the French Cuirassiers - they are among THE sharpest uniforms out there, and the Pendraken sculpts are fabulous, showing the troopers in reserve, ready to follow their commander along into one more glorious charge...these are great castings, and I really had fun working on them.

As with all of my previous 10mm FPW work, these are based for the "1871" wargame rules, in which two bases comprise a cavalry regiment. So there are meant to be two regiments here, but of course there are many ways to configure these for different rules. Thanks for reading everyone - stay sane and safe out there!

Painting Challenge Submission 11 - 10mm French Lancers for FPW

French Lancers in 10mm for the FPW - figures from Pendraken.

So I have been lazy when it comes to posting things on the blog - time to catch up a bit with more submissions from Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. This one contains more 10mm Franco-Prussian War figures - no surprise there. I have been on a bit of a roll with it, so I want to keep it going. These 10mm figures are meant to represent two regiments of French Line Lancers, ready to ride to glory in the summer of 1870. The castings are from Pendraken - as always, a joy to paint, but with one sort of mysterious feature, one which I could not quite bring out in the photos, but I will share a little more about below...

Beautiful sculpts as always from Pendraken - but take a really close look at the musician, if you can.

Cavalry was very important to the armies of 1870, but the era of cavalry regiments closing to contact and having a decisive impact on the battle itself was coming to an end. Of course, no point wasting you time advancing those views in the summer of 1870, right? These brave fellows will run down any enemies foolish enough to mess with Imperial France! What should they be scared of? A bunch of foot-sloggers with black powder muskets? No,...they have rifles you say? Breech-loading you say? How many shots per minute? Backed by breech-loading artillery? Well...I'm sure it will all work out in the end - debrouiller, as the French say. Instant glory awaits. You should charge that Prussian line right now.

Maybe check the musician in this photo? No...a bit blurry...

These are based for the "1871" game rules, where a single base represents two squadrons of cavalry or so, and two bases together represent a regiment. Of course, as with the infantry, the scale of the game can be increased or decreased, so different combinations are possible, but the intent for now is that these will represent two different regiments ready to fight in some of the early engagements near the French/Prussian border.

Yellow facings for this unit.

It was difficult to find clear uniform references for the Lancers in this period. The relevant Osprey book is a bit of a disappointment in this regard, so in the end I bodged it a bit. One of the regiments has yellow facings and collars, the other red...I think I ended up exaggerating the amount of colour on the facings, but it helps when the figures are in this scale.

To battle! Vive L'empereur!

Ok...so I mentioned at the outset there was something odd about the musicians. Can you spot it? Probably not...but each bugler is missing his right forearm - a flaw in the casting, I suppose. And pretty odd that both musicians had that issue. But you only get one bugler per pack, and I didn't want to order new packs of Lancers just to get more musicians...so the "ghost bugles" will help lead these riders to battle on the table!

Thanks for reading! Stand by for more Franco-Prussian War cavalry...stay safe and stay sane!

Painting Challenge Submission 10 - French Turcos and Command for 10mm FPW

More 10mm troops for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870!

Some more work completed for my 10mm Franco-Prussian War of 1870 project. This submission includes a unit of French Tirailleurs Algeriens - the feared "Turcos - and also a command base for the French, all in 10mm. The Turcos are castings from Pendraken, and the command figures are from Magister Millitum.

The Turcos are Pendraken sculpts, and they are amazing quality to work with, I love them.

The Imperial French Army had a poor showing overall in the Franco-Prussian War, but it was not for lack of bravery or determination on the part of the front-line troops, and the Turcos in particular gave a good account of themselves. They were fierce and disciplined in battle against the Prussians and their allies - and from a gaming perspective, they also had cool uniforms, which is great fun to paint!

The problem is much more likely to be found on that command base...some spare figures left over from my Magister Millitum packs. Again, these command bases can be generic but in the "1871" rules, two figures on the base generally represents a division commander. His uniform is nice, but I expect his command modifiers will not be...

A close-up showing the Turco officers...the flag is cast-on, so painted in free-hand.

These figures are based with the rules "1871" in mind, but of course can work for a number of other rule sets.  Even the "1871" rules themselves can scale up and down, but the default starting position is that each base of infantry would represent a battalion, and the three bases together comprise the regiment. But rules like "1871" and "Black Powder" are very flexible, so in the the future there are many potential uses for them.

Ready for action! Vive L'Empereur!

The Pendraken castings are really, really fun to paint. Yes, they are small, but the sculpting and casting are brilliant, with all sorts of little details that will reward your time if you try to bring them out. Painting the flag freehand was a bit of a challenge, but in this scale it is manageable. I'm not sure my brush was up to all of it, but I sure enjoyed these fellows, and they will add to the colourful variety of uniforms to be seen on the Franco-Prussian War gaming table...whenever that can be...sigh. 

Great details on these Pendraken figures!

One thing about the Challenge is your points target. Everyone gets to set their own target, so it's a competition against yourself. I set a target of 1,500 points of painting...that might have been an overreach. To give you an idea of how much to paint, this was worth 33 points...so I had better get cracking if I expect to get to my ambitious target. Watch for more!

Thanks for reading, and try to stay sane!

Painting Challenge Submission 9 - French Artillery fro 10mm FPW

Some 10mm French artillery and crew for the Franco-Prussian war of 1870.

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge continues, and since I have my 10mm figures out, 10mm painting is on my mind and I'm kind of in a 10mm painting "streak", I thought I would bring my brushes along to an ongoing project - the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 in 10mm. I had last added to this collection back in the fall of 2020, and with the Challenge under way, it was a good chance to keep moving forward with the project.

This posting includes various artillery units to bulk up the French side of my FPW collection. There are two 12-pounders, three 4-pounders and one Mitrailleuse, plus crews. All of these castings are from Pendraken, with one  exception: of one of the 4-pound guns and crew, which came from Magister Millitum.

A couple of 4-pounders in the front.

I love this period, but I generally have a lot of trouble finding to motivation to paint artillery from any "Black Powder" setting...it's the f***ing spoked wheels, a pain in the @ss to paint in any scale. A lot of my projects slow to a crawl when it comes to artillery. So as I contemplated moving along on my 10mm FPW, I figured the best thing to do would be to get another batch of guns and crews out of the way first, so everything else can be more fun.

Mitrailleuse in the foreground...at this scale, it looks almost identical to a 4-pounder, so the gun shield helps it stand out a bit.

These guns were rifled muzzle loading artillery pieces, and their poor performance overall contributed to the very poor showing of the French during the war in 1870. It wasn't just the guns themselves, but the doctrine and training around them - and dud fuses didn't help either! Where the Prussian artillery (with their breech-loading guns) was often decisive, the French guns generally underperformed, contributing (together with many, many other factors) to the rapid defeat of the Imperial Army in the summer of 1870.

The 12-pounders...big guns from the Corps-level artillery reserve, meant to provide support on the battlefield where the action is hottest/most critical.

These miniatures can be used for different rules, but generally each gun and crew will represent one battery on the table. The 12-pounders and two of the 4-pounders will be from the Corps-level artillery reserve, while one 4-pounder and the Mitrailleuse will be attached to a specific division. Two of the 4-pounders are actually horse artillery, but by this period the distinction between the horse crews and general artillery crews is fading, and the differences in the uniforms of the gunners do not stand out in 10mm - I just used three crew instead of four crew for the horse batteries. At some point when I paint limbers for the guns the distinction will be clearer...but I admit my enthusiasm to paint limbers is even less than that for artillery...if you ever see me painting limbers, you know I have completed painting on entire armies at that point :)

Thanks for reading - stay safe, stay sane, and be sure to check out the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, where Byron, Mike F and Dallas are continuing to paint up a storm!

Painting Challenge Submission 7 - 10mm Sassanid Persian Levy Infantry

Levy spearmen ready to fight against Rome!

So I got mixed up on my order of submissions to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge...I put submission number eight on the blog on already, and realized I had forgotten to share the seventh one. Whoops! Sorry about that. 

Anyway, here is that seventh submission, and it continued my divergence into 10mm figures. Here we have some Enemies Of Rome. These figures are Sassanid Persian Levy Infantry from the great folks at Magister Millitum. As with the Romans, these figures are based for the Warmaster Ancients rules, and the three bases together comprise a unit for the game. 

10mm figures from Magister Millitum.

These are basically test figures to see if I would like the Magister Millitum Sassanid miniatures...and I do! They are great to work with, lots of character and fun to paint, even though they are very small. 

Just one unit...but have to start somewhere, right?

The pattern on the shields was totally made up - and I don't even know if the Sassanids would have used such a pattern with their infantry, but at the end of the day their Empire was pretty large, and levy infantry could have come from any number of cities and cultures they ruled over. And there is a sort of nice generic aspect to spearmen in this scale...these could serve with Parthians (who ruled prior to the Sassanids) and even into the era of the Crusades...I mean levy spearmen are levy spearmen, and this was a type of troop that served throughout a tremendous number of years. 

Thanks for reading everyone - stay safe, and stay sane if you can. 

Painting Challenge Submission 6 - 10mm Imperial Roman Infantry

10mm Roman troops from Pendraken - ready to move out and defend the Empire!

 

Some more painting for Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  Efforts on my 28mm Byzantine painting efforts have halted for now as I managed to run out of some key supplies...but like many folks out there, I'm hardly ever short of lead to paint, even after all of the hobby disruption in my house-move last summer. So here is a new project - some Imperial Roman Legionnaires in 10mm. These castings are all from the excellent Pendraken, and they are based for "Warmaster Ancients" - there are three units of infantry and one command stand.

Close-up of the first unit.

Painting Romans is a new thing for me, but I have always been interested in the setting. The Painting Challenge has always been a particular spur, as so many of its participants have done (and are doing) very cool projects set in the time of the ancient Roman Republic and Empire. AHPC's 11th edition is no exception - Matt has been trying to inspire folks with a "Rome and It's Enemies" side duel, and there has been some fun submissions there. I promised Matt in a couple of comments that I would do SOMETHING to pitch in on that, so I thought now would be a good time to test the waters and paint some of the 10mm Pendraken Romans I ordered on a whim as part of a carefully considered and well-thought-out plan last summer. 

Close-up of the second unit.

There are many sub-settings within the ancient Roman world. I know many players enjoy the earlier era, and the wars with Carthage and others. But for me, "Rome" is the legion at the height of its power, the soldiers in their segmented armour, carrying square shields and pila, facing down the Germans, the Dacians, the Parthians and the Sassanids (and many, many others). The later Roman era is very appealing too...but I started with troops from the time of the Empire at its height.

Close-up of the third unit.

A little closer...sorry it is blurry but there has been no light in Northern Ontario for three months...

I really like the "Warmaster" rules, and so the "Warmaster Ancients" was an easy choice - the units look lovely without having to be too large, and I have had fun with the rules over the years playing the original version of the game set in GW's now-vanished "Old World". I thought it would be great to use for ancient gaming as well.

A Roman command base.

There are three "units" here - could be cohorts, could be whatever, depending on your imagination and scaling of the game. I know the colour red is cliche with Romans, but I wanted these first units to "pop" on the table, even from a couple feet away, and nothing says "Roman Legion" like red. As I add other units I will start to vary the colours. The shields have just enough of a freehand squiggle on them to imply a deeper/more ornate pattern without one actually being there. I will vary the colour of these on other units in the future too.

Time to march!

I can't say enough good stuff about the quality of these Pendraken sculpts. Sure, they are small, but damn, I enjoy painting them - they are brilliantly sculpted and well cast...little details still present and you are able to take some time with each one if you wish. Maybe not the most efficient approach, but I enjoy it. 

So that's one more project to wander along...thanks for reading! Stay sane everyone. 

4Ground 10mm Security Fencing for Adeptus Titanicus

Last year for Christmas, Pam got me some very cool terrain from 4Ground. The first one of these kits to be built was their "Security Fencing" set, shown above with Gilles. 

The set gives you ten full-length fence sections, eight half-length sections, ten corner sections, and two full- and one half-section gates.

The photo above gives a good idea of how much you get. It should be an ample quantity for fencing off an industrial area on your AT table. The terrain tile above is two feet on each edge.

Tiny though they are, the fences in the kit are composed of *many* tiny fibreboard parts. The fencing itself is printed clear acetate that you cut out from the sheet yourself. Clever.

You also get some "gate" sections as shown here.

The kit is listed as "Skill Level 3" out of 5. I also have a "Skill Level 5" kit yet to build and I have to confess I'm a bit afraid of it. The fencing kit was certainly not difficult to assemble but it was somewhat fiddly and composed of many small parts. Thank goodness it was pre-painted... however the parts all fit well and putting them together was a pleasant way to spend a few hours.

Hopefully they'll maybe see the gaming table sometime next year...?

Stay healthy and safe everyone.